A love never old
by ArcAngel-liberty4all
Summary: What if Ginny had been the injured girl at the final battle? A oneshot looking at this and Harry's and Ginny's relationship, inspired by the series 2 and 3 finales of Robin Hood. AN you don't need to have seen Robin Hood or know anything about it.


Summery: What if the final battle had gone wrong, what if Ginny was the injured girl.

Harry was determined, he hadn't let Ron and Hermione stop him, he wasn't going to let Ginny stop him, that was until he saw her, lying bleeding from a cutting curse across her stomach, you didn't have to be a healer to know that it was bad.

Harry ran towards her, taking off his invisibility cloak as he went and he knelt beside her prone form, her face deathly pale and her eyes filled with pain.

"Harry" she breathed.

"I'm here." He grasped her hand; willing the wound to close, "Hold on _episky_" Nothing happened.

"It was a dark curse, it won't close, I already tried." Ginny gasped. "Please Harry, I don't want to die alone."

"I love you and you won't be alone, just hold on, you're family are in the Great Hall." Harry slipped one arm beneath her shoulders and the other beneath her knees. "Just hold on." He started at a jog towards the castle, only to be surrounded by redheads who took her from him as he entered the Great Hall.

Minutes passed agonisingly slowly, Harry knew not only that every second could be Ginny's, the girl, no the woman he loved last moments. Another person dying for him. It just wasn't fair.

Ron approached, "She's asking for you mate." Harry hurried to her side and dropped to his knees taking her hand in his.

"Hey" he murmured, suddenly not knowing what to say.

"Marry me Harry." Ginny said, her voice calmer now, but still fainter.

"I thought I was supposed to ask you that."

"I'm not asking you I'm telling you, I love you Harry Potter! And I don't have much time. Now are you going to make an honest woman out of me or not." Somehow this amazing woman, this beautiful woman was managing to smile.

Harry waved his wand, and two simple gold bands appeared in his palm.

"I, Harry James Potter take thee, Ginevra Molly Weasley to be my lawful wedded wife." Mrs Weasley burst into tears somewhere in the background, Harry felt his eyes prickle; he didn't want to cry, not now. "To have and to hold from this day forward, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part." Tears started dripping down his cheeks, onto her far too pale face.

"I, Ginevra Molly Weasley take thee Harry James Potter to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, on earth and especially in heaven, for now and forever, till death do us part."

Harry slipped a ring onto her finger and she did the same for him.

"Kiss me Harry." He did so, a gentle and lingering kiss, bittersweet with the promise of many years together so cruelly stolen from them.

"I love you my husband."

"I love you, now and forever my beautiful wife"

"What am I going to do now, how can I carry on without you?" Harry was crying properly now.

"Your going to carry on because you can, because I love you, because you are the bravest most beautiful man I've ever met, and your going to kill Tom for me. You vanquished my demon when I was eleven years old, and now its time for you to vanquish yours. I love you, now live and be happy."

"I love you so much."

"It's okay. A good day to die."

Harry leant down and kissed her once more, as he pulled back her face contorted in pain for a moment, then relaxed as she breathed out.

Harry straightened. Grief threatened to overwhelm him as he watched Mrs Weasley weep over her children's bodies, he saw Ron on his knees, Hermione by his side, his face a mask of grief and he turned away, walked away only to walk into Neville in the entrance hall.

"Hey Nev"

"Harry"

"If you get the chance, kill Voldemort's snake, it's really important, it means he can die. I asked Ron and Hermione, but if they don't get the chance…"

Neville nodded, "I understand Harry." Harry noticed, that he seemed to understand everything and noticed that he had seen his wedding.

Harry went outside, to the spot where he had found Ginny and placed his invisibility cloak around his shoulders. He lifted the snitch to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die."

The resurrection stone fell out; he gripped it, and felt strangely at peace as Sirius, Remus, his parents and his wife appeared before him, beautiful and happy.

Harry arrived at the clearing.

"I believed he would come" Voldemort was saying. Harry gazed at Ginny one last time before dropping the resurrection stone, stowing his cloak beneath his robes and stepping into the firelight.

"Your late" was Voldemort's remark, the triumph and glee dancing around his face.

"I got married" Harry responded, then Voldemort raised his wand and Harry knew no more.

Epilogue- 30 years later

A dignified man approaching fifty stepped up onto the platform, he had messy black hair, although he no longer wore glasses.

"I have often been asked to give a speech on this day, the day many of us remember as the day the war against Voldemort ended, but only this year have I chosen to come. I am sure many of you are wondering why. It is partly because of the urging of my friends, and partly because my godson, Teddy Lupin, has just been named youngest head of the auror division in a century. All good people, incredible witches and wizards, I know because I taught many of them Defence Against the Dark Arts myself at Hogwarts.

"I come to speak of that day, not only as a great victory, which gave us an early end to a truly devastating war, but as a great tragedy, one which I have only recently truly come to terms with. So many lives were lost on that day, the last of the infamous marauders died, the tales of whose exploits I still tell to young students today, of some of the most gifted pranksters ever to have passed though the hallowed halls of Hogwarts School. Of these men who I am proud to call my father, and Godfather, and if my Godson will forgive me for mentioning him, Teddy's father too, Remus Lupin, one of the kindest men I ever met and most inspiring teachers. Severus Snape, a good friend of my mothers, a teacher who I never got on with, Hogwarts least popular headmaster, and probably the bravest man I ever met. Colin Creevy, a brave young muggleborn, he was only fourteen. And my wife, Ginny Weasley, the most beautiful passionate young woman who I ever met.

"I tell you this today, not to darken the national holiday but as a reminder, a reminder of the many lives which were lost, not just on that day but across both wars. They gave their lives for you, so that you could live in peace and happiness. I would like to borrow words now from a muggle poem, for muggle's had two wars, which were just as devastating as our own, although they were a bit longer ago.

"They will not grow old as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, and in the morning, we will remember them"

"We will remember them" the muggleborns in the crowds echoed quietly. Harry smiled and raised his glass.

"To the victorious dead, may they never be forgotten, and the harmony we now share never be forsaken in favour of darker things" The crowd murmured, it wasn't the conventional toast.

"The victorious dead" A single voice rose up, soon echoed by the crowd. Harry met the eyes of Teddy, a tall man with striking blue hair, across the crowd and nodded at him. A man as dear to him as a son, he would be getting married soon, it was a peaceful times, and his promotion had given him that extra to truly dazzle Victoire Weasley. Times were good.

104 years following the final battle.

Harry lay in his bed, he had wanted to be alone, he knew he was going to die tonight, he could sense it in his magic. Teddy, now retired with grandchildren and great-grandchildren would come to visit.

Harry was nearly as old as Dumbledore, although he hadn't weathered nearly so well. He lay on his bed and thought of his wife, of Ginny, the woman to whom his thoughts so often went. Her parents had died years ago and all her brothers except Ron, dear Ron, who had gone on to play quidditch professionally, although briefly and at the age of 121 was still being scolded by Hermione, his wife. His dear bickering friends who didn't look a day past 75.

Harry thought of her crimson hair, of her voice, the way she laughed, the way she smiled, that terrible sad beautiful smile as they got married.

Inexplicably he looked to the door and saw her, dressed in white as beautiful and more real a hundredfold than she had been in life, she reached out her hand, and he took it, feeling as young and strong as a teenager again he stood.

"I have waited for you my love." She said.

"And I for you." Harry kissed her, looking exactly as he had at seventeen, then he lifted her and swung her around, laughing.

The next day Teddy let himself in to Harry's isolated home, and found the body, he lay as if sleeping with a smile on his face. The death of a living legend the boy-who-lived.

Following the funeral a stranger, one of the thousands who had come to pay their respects, pressed a slip of parchment.

"Let me die an old man's death, a clean in-between the sheets death."

Teddy crumpled the paper in his hand and smiled through his tears, Harry had fulfilled his promised, and Teddy hoped that he was now reaping the rewards, with his wife, the legendary Ginny Weasley in heaven.


End file.
